Coming home: Shirley Baker at Manchester Art Gallery

Women, Children and Loitering Men opened at Manchester Art Gallery on the 18th May and the occasion was packed with an excited crowd, thrilled to have Manchester photographer Shirley Baker exhibiting in her home city. Several more works have been added to the Manchester show.

Considerable effort has been made to find some of the people featured in the photographs – understandably it has not been an easy task but has been rewarding for the curator, the gallery and for Shirley Baker’s family when any of the figures in her photos, seemingly lost in the mists of time, has materialised. Two families were able to attend the private view and were delighted to be part of this emotional experience. They provided many fascinating stories of their childhoods in Manchester and Salford. These photos are particularly precious to many of the subjects as cameras were a rarity; these pictures provide the only record of this time in their lives.

The Williamson boys (far left) from Salford attended the show – they revealed how their street was known as tea leaf valley because the women chucked the contents of their tea pot out onto the street! And Mary, Sally, Kate and Bridget were known as the red-headed Murray girls.